Editorial

In this issue, we are fortunate to have two interviews of outstanding scholar/activists and one very interesting conference report. The first interview, by Kristina R. Schmukler and Jamie L. Franco-Zamudio of the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA, is entitled "Interview: a retrospective account of Faye Crosby's life and research". It beautifully describes contributors to Crosby's life of scholarship and activism in pursuit of equality for non-dominant group members. Schmulker and Franco-Zamudio are students of Faye and their love and appreciation for her are apparent in the interview. I was fortunate enough to be able to interview Joan Acker for the second piece, entitled "A conversation with Joan Acker on her work,motivations, and suggestions for future researchers". After years of reading and admiring Acker's work as a student, then fellow academic, but not having met her, I was awestruck to be able to talk with Acker about her life and work. As is apparent from the candor of our conversation, Acker did not disappoint. I hope her exhortations for us to have courage as we continue the work will not go unheeded. I also hope that for future submissions readers, through these distinctly different interviews of phenomenal scholar/activists, will appreciate the diversity with which interviews can be conducted and written.

The conference report in this issue is written by Gayle Baugh, University of West Florida, USA. She reports on the gender and diversity-related papers presented at the 2006 Southern Management Association conference in Orlando,Florida, USA. Baugh skillfully weaves together the themes of the papers presented, but also provides insights into what is most commonly researched(gender) and what is still woefully understudied (sexual orientation, religion,and disability) in the community at large. The latter aspects of diversity were completely absent from papers presented. Might Baugh's identification of this absence be a call for more research in those areas?

Myrtle P. Bell